Examining the Relationship Between Cultural Humility and the Working Therapeutic Alliance with African American Clients in Counseling

African Americans are one of the most least likely ethnic groups to engage in counseling. Despite African Americans struggling with mental health at the same rate and sometimes more as their white counterparts, African Americans continue to be hesitant to receive mental health services. Minimal research has been conducted to assess how to engage African Americans in counseling and what the barriers are to their engagement. When working with African Americans, cultural humility seeks to address barriers in understanding the cultural experiences of clients in counseling. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the role cultural humility plays in the counseling relationship with African American clients that aides in improving therapeutic outcomes. This quantitative study examined the relationship between cultural humility, ethnic identity and two types of outcomes: cultural missed opportunities and a positive working therapeutic alliance. The Hayes Process plugin for SPSS was used to identify the relationship between a counselor’s level of cultural humility and the impact it has on the therapeutic alliance with African American clients. The findings of the study predict that African American clients do perceive their counseling experience as positive when a counselor displays a level of cultural humility.